Sludge-Be-Gone
Round Mountain Water’s Sludge Disposal Plan
Fertilizes Hay Fields

by George Gramlich
Early this week the Sentinel received a whole bunch of inquiries concerning a proposed sludge disposal plan for Round Mountain Water & Sanitation District’s waste treatment project. The district wants to dispose of the dry sludge from its sediment/containment ponds as fertilizer on a local ranch. The inquiries mostly regarded possible soil contamination, especially with “forever chemicals” (often referred to as PFAS chemicals (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).
The issue is about disposing of the dry sludge found at the bottom of the sediment treatment ponds at Round Mountain’s waste treatment facility. The dry sludge must be removed so that the ponds can be refurbished for Round Mountain’s new revolutionary treatment process that they want to install. (The project has just been approved by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE)). Construction of the infrastructure for the new process is tentatively scheduled for mid-summer, and if everything goes all right, the new plant could go online in the fall. (Dave Schneider, Round Mountain’s Director, is the man behind installing this low cost, low tech, electrical coagulation process. This system can process the wastewater effluent at a fraction of the cost of traditional methods. Dozens of other Colorado counties and municipalities are facing the same problem we are; traditional waste treatment processes, as mandated by CDPHE, are not fiscally possible for small tax based entities. Dave has worked with CDPHE for years trying to get them to approve of this new technology and he has finally got it done. (It is truly revolutionary.)
To find out the facts of the situation, we went over and talked to Dave. He said Round Mountain has contracted with a firm in Fort Lupton, Colorado, Denali Water Solutions (DWS), to dispose of the sludge. In turn, DWS has contracted with a Colorado rancher out of Pueblo, Joseph Knopf, who owns a large tract of pasture in the Valley, to dispose of the sludge on his land as it is considered outstanding fertilizer. The land Mr. Knopf will be applying the sludge to is a section of a larger lot. Mr. Knopf hays that lot.
Denali has approached Custer County Planning & Zoning with details of the plan to apply the dry sludge/fertilizer to the local hay field in the Valley. Denali has had the sludge tested for everything that Colorado and the Feds require, including PFAS chemicals. This has been done at least four times in recent months and according to Dave, the sludge has passed all the tests easily. Thus, it is good fertilizer. Denali will also comply with all state setback requirements, e.g., from water sources, buildings, roads, etc. Round Mountain is paying Denali $300,000 to dispose of the sludge at Mr. Knopf’s ranch. (The cost is very low due to the short distance to the dispersal site.) Dave said that if they can’t use Mr. Knopf’s ranch, and the sludge has to go out-of-county, the cost would skyrocket to $1.5 to $2.0 Million! Dave noted that Round Mountain does not have the money for that (not even close) and if that was the only option, the project would probably have to be canceled and Custer County would be in serious trouble with CDPHE as our current waste treatment is obsolete and out-of-compliance. This would also halt any new customers for Round Mountain.
In other words, a total disaster.
We talked to Commissioner Bill Canda about this and he was aware of it. (Bill lives near the application site.) Canda said that no Special Use Permit would be needed as it is a fertilizer application which ranchers do all the time with various companies that supply solid and liquid fertilizer to increase hay production. Bill noted that fertilizer application is a standard, non-regulated ranching/farming practice.
We will have to see how this plays out with P&Z, as the source fertilizer is a bit different than commercially prepared solid and liquid fertilizers. However, since it has been repeatedly tested and passed all standards, there shouldn’t be a problem.
The bottom line is that Round Mountain needs to use Denali, and a local ranch, to dispose of this pond sludge for it to go forward with its “last hope” waste treatment project due to the cost of having it dispersed out of county.
Folks, if we don’t get this done, we could be in big trouble financially.